This Italian tragedy chronicles the sad love affair between a military inductee and a young woman. The story is set in Italy, during 1938 when Mussolini was having all Jews exiled from Italy. Donatello loves Vernier. Trouble ensues when Vernier refuses to disclose her religious beliefs to the government. She eventually deliberately dives into the Arno River and drowns. The distraught fellow then learns from his mother, that his father, an opposition leader, was executed in prison. Despite the terrible tragedies surrounding him, the brave boy goes into the military. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi